Friday, April 08, 2011

Urban Decay The Black Palette (Review and Swatches)

Happy Friday y'all! I've kinda fallen off the wagon for a minute with all the hustle and bustle of life. But good thing I've drafted up some reviews in between, so I'll have some product reviews coming at'cha! I hope ya'll missed me :D.

So last Christmas, I received a super generous gift from a friend of mine. I guess I have been a really good friend since I received a few makeup items that had been on my wishlist. And one of them is the Urban Decay The Black Palette.

Available at: Online at UrbanDecay.com, Sephora.com and in Sephora or Ulta stores

At that time around, the popular Naked Palette was nowhere in sight. And if they were, they sold like hot cakes and were pretty much gone in an instant. I'm a big fan of Urban Decay Palettes and The Black Palette was also part of my wishlist, so I was just as excited when I got it as part of my Christmas present.

Urban Decay always has the cutest packaging for their palettes. Although since we are talking about The Black Palette here, there was really nothing too exciting about the palette design as it's only a black glossy cardboard palette with some fancy printing on top and grey specks as a background. No usual crazy design, but it's still nonetheless appropriate. It just wasn't the usual bold over the top we're used to seeing.

The cardboard cover is magnetically enclosed and also has a mirror inside which is really convenient. The palette has six "black based" eyeshadows inside to help you achieve that smokey look you desire. It also comes with a sample size of Urban Decay's Zero 24/7 Glide-On Eyeliner to complete the look (review) and a mini Eden Eyeshadow Primer to help your eyeshadows last longer.

With Flash

No Flash

The eyeshadows in this palette are about as big as your MAC eyeshadows and are in round pans as opposed to their usual rectangular or squared shape. If you really want to be more space or storage efficient with your makeup, it would be easy to "depot" these eyeshadows as it's only housed in cardboard palette.

The Black Palette is perfect for the girls who love their sultry, smokey eye look. If you're trying to achieve the Kim K. look in six different color variations, the Black Palette is perfect for you. You want a green smokey eye look, smoke your eyes out with the Libertine eyeshadow.

Lately, this has been my go to palette when I'm getting ready to go out at night. I made sure that I brought this palette with me to Vegas. Creating the smokey eye look is pretty easy as long as I have this palette in tow. Whether it'd be a purple or just a simple smokey eye look, there's an eyeshadow for that. After applying my lid color, I just take my crease brush and use windshield wiping motions to blend out the eyeshadow to my crease and outer half of my lids. There is no need to blend a black eyehshadow color to deepen the color.

The eyeshadows also blended nicely on to my lids which is the key when creating smokey eyes. You don't want the harsh edges. Another thing that I like about it is minimal fading towards a long night. The one thing I don't like about it is the amount of fall out it creates. Almost all the time, when I'm trying to apply my eyeshadows, it also lands on my cheeks. So I suggest to either or one of the following: use a tissue to catch the fallouts, apply your foundation after you finish your eye makeup, or take a piece of scotch tape to pick up the eyeshadow fallouts. Luckily, the glittery eyeshadows are not too much of a pain to apply, and despite it being glittery, you won't look like you just came out of a Ke$ha concert covered in glitter.

Final thoughts: Despite the fallouts of these eyeshadows, I find myself reaching out for this palette frequently. Ever since I've received this palette as a Christmas gift, it has been the only thing I use for my crease for my smokey eye looks. It's a nice a palette to have because I don't have to sit in front of the mirror longer to blend a black eyeshadow on the outer corners of my lids hoping it'll look something like Kim Kardashian's sultry eye make-up. I'm more unlikely to look like I've been punched in the eyes.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5

FTC: The product mentioned on this post was a gift from friend. This post contains affiliate links to Sephora.com which gives me a teeny commission if you shop through the links provided. As always, these are my honest thoughts.